Or if I seem partial to my countryman, and predecessor in the
laurel, the friends of antiquity are not few; and besides many of the
learned, Ovid has almost all the beaux, and the whole fair sex, his
declared patrons. Perhaps I have assumed somewhat more to myself than
they allow me, because I have adventured to sum up the evidence; but
the readers are the jury, and their privilege remains entire, to decide
according to the merits of the cause, or, if they please, to bring it
to another hearing before some other court.
In the meantime, to follow the thread of my discourse (as thoughts,
according to Mr. Hobbes, have always some connection), so from Chaucer
I was led to think on Boccace, who was not only his contemporary, but
also pursued the same studies; wrote novels in prose, and many works
in verse; particularly is said to have invented the octave rhyme, or
stanza of eight lines, which ever since has been maintained by the
practice of all Italian writers, who are, or at least assume the title
of Heroic Poets; he and Chaucer, among other things, had this in common,
that they refined their mother tongue; but with this difference, that
Dante had began to file their language, at least in verse, before the
time of Boccace, who likewise received no little help from his master
Petrarch.
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